Radiotherapy provider Nucletron of Veenendaal, the Netherlands, will debut new products and upgrades at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) conference in Atlanta this week.
The firm will be spotlighting the latest component for its Spot Pro treatment-planning system for permanent-seed prostate implants at the conference. The Inverse Planning Module generates an optimal treatment plan in less than a minute, enabling plan adjustments to take place during the procedure, according to the company.
Spot Pro is available as a stand-alone treatment-planning system for manual-seed-implant techniques, and can also be integrated into the developer's automated Fully Integrated Real-Time Seed Treatment (FIRST) system, Nucletron said.
The company will also be highlighting its recently released OncoSystem Breast, a complete turnkey kit for accelerated partial-breast irradiation (APBI). The system is a compilation of Nucletron products and services including its Plato Insight brachytherapy treatment-planning software, the Kuske Breast Template, the OncoSmart catheter, and professional clinical education.
Nucletron reported that the American Medical Association CPT Editorial Panel has approved a CPT code for the implantation of its Comfort catheter system (now marketed as OncoSmart) for patients who are candidates for breast-conserving cancer treatment.
The new CPT code and reimbursement level is expected to be published this month in the 2005 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) final rule, and will be effective January 2005. The catheter system will be introduced at ASTRO this week.
In other news, Nucletron said it has formalized a partnership agreement with Exxim Computing of Pleasanton, CA. The companies will work together on the development and marketing of conebeam CT reconstruction software, a method of acquiring and reconstructing CT images from 3D isotropic image data using an amorphous silicon detector on a radiotherapy simulator. The radiation therapy imaging and validation tool provides the capability to perform conventional, virtual, and CT-assisted simulation on one device, the company said.
Finally, the developer reported that the Image-Guided Therapy QA Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, has approved the latest version of its Plato brachytherapy-planning system (BPS) as compliant with the Advanced Technology QA Consortium protocol for submission of high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy plans.
The approval provides Plato BPS users with the ability to participate in Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) and other cooperative group clinical trials that require digital data submission.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writers
October 4, 2004
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Nucletron previews new Oncentra module, August 17, 2004
MDS Nordion, Nucletron partner, June 29, 2004
Nucletron releases Oncentra 1.3, March 4, 2004
Nucletron gets 510(k) for Simulix Evolution, February 10, 2004
Nucletron, RaySearch partner on IMRT, January 20, 2004
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